Conditional access systems or so-called CAS are typically used in the context of digital television systems, such as cable and satellite television, and are configured to ensure the protection of content by requiring certain conditions to be satisfied before access to the content is granted. A CAS architecture generally includes a tuner, a first-in first-out (FIFO) buffer, a multiplexor, and a termination device such as a CableCARD™ developed by CableLabs®. The FIFO buffer is typically implemented as a small low-latency FIFO that the multiplexor clocks packets out of, and can be integrated into the silicon of the multiplexor. The multiplexor, sometimes referred to as a MUX, is typically implemented in accordance with a given standard, such as the OpenCable™ specification. In typical operation, data is received from the tuner, queued up in an FIFO buffer and then sent to the multiplexor. The queuing in the FIFO is used to prevent temporal packet collisions as multiple packet streams are coalesced into a single time-multiplexed stream.